For sale is a complete, professional 1 BBL (31 gallon) HERMS brewery by Stout Tanks. It was lightly used for the last 2-3 years as a hobby. There is nothing wrong with it whatsoever, it is just too big for me to manage as a hobby, and I'm planning on downsizing to a smaller brew length.
Everything is stainless steel except the chillers and the table and a jury-rigged CIP "lid" for the kettles, and all connections are tri-clamp.
Able to deliver the system in the Seattle Metropolitan Area for a reasonable price. Delivery to other parts of WA are up for negotiation. Pickup is also available. Payment will have to clear entirely before it is loaded into any vehicle.
Equipment list
Brewhouse
- HERMS Hot Liquor Tun (HLT): 40 Gallon Hot Liquor Tank (with Sight Glass, HERMS Coil and 2 Element Ports) | Brewing Equipment for Sale
- Malt Liquor Tun (MLT): Buy a 1 BBL Mash Tun for brewing beer | Stout Tanks & Kettles Brew Equipment
- Boil Kettle (BK): 45 Gallon Brew Kettle - with 2 Element Ports, 1 Level Sensor Port (Electric) | Brewing Equipment for Sale
- 2 x 1BBL Conicals (fits in upright chest freezers): This 40 Gallon Conical Fermenter FITS IN A FREEZER | Stout Tanks & Kettles Brew Equipment
Custom-built brewing table, on heavy duty casters, stained and finished with polyurethane
Converted upright freezer(s) for fermentation temperature control, guaranteed to fit fermenters (Note, one freezer has stopped working, so this price is for just one converted freezer, but you are welcome to take both and get the other freezer fixed)
Copper counterflow wort Chiller w/ Tri Clamp ports
Copper Plate Chiller with Tri Clamp ports for wort, garden hose fittings for water
Two chugger pumps on mounting block, with silver soldered Tri Clamp ports
4 x Tri-Clamp 5500W electric elements with 30A locking plugs on the exterior
Fermenter racking arms, mash vorlauf pipe
SS Tri-Clamp Wort Strainer
SS Tri-Clamp Spray Ball
2 x 1.5" Tri Clamp Sight Glass
Hot-side Plywood+silicone CIP "lid" for cleaning the BK and MLT in-place (see photos)
Custom Control panel
- Raspberry Pi (control panel brain; details below)
- 5V power supply
- Receptacles
- 4 x 30A locking receptacles for electric elements
- 2 x 20A locking receptacles for pumps
- Cables
- 4 x 30A locking cables (able to be disconnected on both ends)
- 2 x 20A locking cables (able to be disconnected from control panel
- Solid State Relays (SSRs) and Heatsink
- Two SSRs able to power 11,000 W each (for electronically controlling elements)
- Overkill externally mounted heatsink to dissipate heat generated from SSRs
- Enclosure
- Switches and Lights
- 2 x green LEDs to indicate pump power status
- 2 x yellow LEDs to indicate element power status
- 1 x key power switch that turns control panel power on and off (note, this does _not_ turn the Raspberry Pi off)
- 1 x Emergency push stop switch that will cut power to all but the Raspberry Pi
- 1 x Blue LED to indicate overall control panel power status.
- 3 x Tri-Clamp RTD-100 Temperature Probes:
- 6 x Circuit Breakers (one per AC receptacle, to ensure we don't fry other electronics)
- Contactors for physically cutting power
- Wiring
- Optional Upgrade for use with BruControl (see below)
Total initial cost: $9,293
Asking price: $6,500
Control Panel Details
The control panel is completely custom built, based somewhat upon the Electric Brewery (The Electric Brewery) design, although controlled virtually rather than physically, and can power up to 11,000 W of heating elements at a time, as well as two different pumps. It also has three RTD 100 temperature probe connections for accurate temperature readings. It requires a dedicated 50 amp, 240V circuit be installed, with a NEMA 14-50 receptacle (this is the same receptacle used for a lot of electric cars, so if you have an electric car, or are considering getting one, this circuit can be used for brewing and charging (although, one of those at a time, of course)). Or you could hard wire a circuit into the panel. Consult an electrician.
Nothing is hardwired from the tanks to the control panel. All cables are removable from the control panel, and the peripherals (except the pumps; they came hardwired on the pump side, but can be disconnected from the control panel)
The control panel currently runs on a Raspberry Pi through a custom-built webserver running on the Pi, accessible from your phone/tablet/laptop. Functionality is limited, and not without issues, but you are able to do full brewdays with the system, with some setup. This system was designed before BruControl (BruControl – Process Automation Made Personal ; BruControl: Brewery control & automation software) existed, otherwise I would have used it, as it is very affordable, feature filled, and has a support team.
That being said, expanding the existing brewery software as-is would non-trivial and would require quite a bit of knowledge on circuits and microcontrollers. If you are interested in the brewery, but not interested in maintaining the software, I am willing to upgrade the control panel to use BruControl (you'd have to buy the software for $100), which will allow for much easier expansion of the control panel. We will have to negotiate pricing on this upgrade (parts would be at-cost, labor would be negotiated). You, of course, can buy the system as-is and upgrade it yourself, or replace the RPi with physical switches, knobs, PIDs, etc.
If you choose to have me upgrade the system, we can discuss adding a few things onto the upgrade:
- Add an extra temperature probe. The control panel was initially designed to accommodate four temperature probes, but I only could fit three in the case. The BruControl upgrade will likely add extra space to the control panel interior, allowing me to add the extra temperature probe. Parts would be at cost, labor would be minimal.
- Add pressure sensors to HLT and BK. The BK and the HLT both have sight glasses for measuring liquid volume. If you want sensor support for volume, so you can see it in BruControl and use it in workflows, I can install pressure sensors in each tank, and set up BruControl to turn the signal from those sensors in to liquid volume. Parts would be market value, labor would be moderate.
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